1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bed apparatus effective to prevent development of any bedsore in a prolonged bed user especially, such as a bed-ridden ill or elderly person.
2. Description of the Related Art
The patient, being unable to turn in a bed or raise his or her own body, has to be kept confined to the bed for a prolonged period of time. The bed user, continuing his or her supine position over a prolonged period of time, has often suffered from a bedsore, causing greater pain in the user. In order to prevent such a problem, the patient has to change his or her assumed body position in a proper way. A bed apparatus has been developed to solve such a problem.
Conventionally, this kind of bed apparatus has, for example, the following problems. That is, the bed apparatus includes a bed body having a rotation frame supported such that it can be rotated, in a right/left direction, with the width-direction midpoint used as a rotation axis. The rotation frame includes a bed plate structure. The bed plate structure has a middle bed plate assembly and a pair of side bed plate assemblies provided one at each side of the middle bed plate assembly in which case these bed plate assemblies are rotatable in an upward direction.
When the rotation frame is rotated, in the right/left direction, with the width-direction midpoint used as the rotation axis, the side bed plate assembly on the lowering width-direction one-end side of the rotation frame abuts against a stopper, thereby preventing rotation in a downward direction so that upward bending is obtained on the side bed plate assembly. The patient lying in the middle bed plate assembly has his or her body position changed in accordance with the rotation of the middle bed plate assembly and is prevented, by the upwardly bent side bed plate assembly, from falling from the bed plate structure down onto the bedside floor. Thus, the patient in the bed has his or her body position changed through an alternate right/left-direction rotation of the rotation frame so that a bedsore can be prevented.
When the body position of the patient has to be changed in the bed apparatus thus arranged, the rotation frame is rotated, in the right/left direction, with the width-direction midpoint used as a fulcrum and, by doing so, the middle bed plate assembly of the bed plate structure is interlockingly moved with the rotation of the rotation frame.
For this reason, the rotation frame is so rotated that, with the width-direction midpoint used as a fulcrum, either one side is raised and the other side is lowered in which case the middle bed plate assembly is interlocked with the rotation of the rotation frame.
If the rotation frame is rotated with the width-direction midpoint as a fulcrum, adequate space has to be secured on the lower surface side of the rotation frame so that the one-end side of the rotation frame in the width direction may be rotated in the downward direction. To this end, it is necessary to increase the height of the bed body, that is, the support height of the middle bed plate relative to the bed body.
With the support height of the middle bed plate assembly so increased, it becomes difficult for the bed user to get into and out of the bed body and, for an ill person in particular, it has sometimes been almost impossible to climb into and out of the bed body. This is very inconvenient to the bed user. Therefore, the support height of the bed body should be made as low as practical so that the patient can readily get into and out of the bed body.
In the cases where any patient in a bed in the supine position is examined for any diseased conditions or any action is needed for bedside care, if the patient bed is supported at too low a level, then it is difficult for a doctor or an attendant to see or care for the patient properly. In this case it is desirable that the support height of the patient be adjustably varied.
As appreciated from the above, the conventional bed apparatus is so configured that, when the patient has his or her body position changed properly, the middle bed plate assembly in a bed plate structure is so rotated as to be raised at its width-direction one-end side and lowered at its width-direction other-end side. Sufficient space needs to be secured on the lower surface side of the middle bed plate assembly so as to enable the middle bed plate assembly to be lowered on its width-direction other-end side. For this reason, the bed plate structure has to be supported at a high level and, moreover, a patient often cannot climb into and out of the bed body on his or her own. Accordingly, such a bed structure is often not easy to utilize for a prolonged bed user.